[War] Russia/USA: "A Friendly Competition"

[Michael Downey]

"A Friendly Competition"
Colonel-General Amir Rezakaev
Lieutenant-General William Sands
3 February 2013
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<Siberia>

It was cold, though that was of course to be expected given the area.
Luck was on their side, and the winds were low. This far from
civilization there was no urban light pollution and the star shined
brightly above.

"I thought I would never see the day," Colonel-General Rezakaev said
to his adjunct, Major Raikov, his breath coming out as a thick stream
of forzen mist. But his eyes did not decieve him. C-17s, several of
them in fact, stationed on the tarmac of a Russian military base. His
base. Already Stykers, Abrams and full companies of armed American
troops were disembarking.

"Nor did we, Colonel-General," spoke an American, well-bundled under a
parka, saluting. Lt. General William Sands, the US Contingent
Commander tasked from ARPAC for the exercise, breathed a similarly
cold mist. "But as my Commander-in-Chief reminded me recently, it -has-
 been two decades since our nations stared each other down across the
Inner-German Border.

"This had to happen eventually, after all. How many of our -officers-
are old enough to remember the Cold War, even?"

Not many, Rezakaev had to admit to himself. He had just been a
lieutenant when the Iron Curtain came down and the Red Steamroller
pulled out of the old Warsaw Pact nations. A good number of his
enlisted troops had not even been born.

"Well, I'm certainly glad to have you, General Sands," replied
Rezakaev, returning the salute. "Welcome to Siberia, and the first
Russo-American wargame exercise."

- Hide quoted text -
"Thank you. Speaking of my President, rumor has it he might be making
an appearance - he's shown a talent for appearing practically out of
nowhere, my CSM said, and I know that both Williams and Nemerenko
planned to observe things. The troops love him for it, I've -
personally- seen him leading formation runs at Fort Wainwright and
otherwise participating in training...But the Secret Service always
looks fairly desperate. He does have a kid on the way, so hopefully
he's going to slow down -slightly-," Sands replied.

"That said, what sort of scenario did your planning team postulate?"

The President of the United States was running around along with a
full division of American troops in Siberia? Brezhnev would have had a
heart attack. Rezakaev had not been informed when President Nemerenko
might make an appearance, though he knew to expect it.

"Our current draft plan is to split both our forces into two groups,
DEFFORCE and OPFORCE. Each group will be a mixed US-Federation force a
division in size, co-commanded by officers from our respective sides.
OPFORCE will be assinged three objectives, a mountain pass, and
airfield and a small town, that they have to capture. DEFFORCE will,
obviously, try and prevent them from doing so."

Sands smiled, especially when the Russians seemed shocked by the
notion of POTUS making an appearance. "Not a bad plan, though the
word 'co-command' would I think cause problems. A thought: OPFORCE
will be commanded by me, with your deputy as XO. DEFFORCE, commanded
by you, my deputy division commander as your XO. In multinational ops,
we've found that going for a two-commander system is a very, very bad
idea; in addition, in wartime, a two-commander system would cause
chaos. Additionally, I'm wondering if perhaps we might not go more
ambitious with the objectives. All of Siberia is our play area, after
all, so why not use it?

"That said," Sands continued, glancing as the winds picked up, "we
should get inside, or at least under cover. We can continue there."

"Of course," said Rezakaev. He led Sands and his staff to the base CP.
If the Russians could do one thing, it was keep themselves warm. The
briefing room has renovated just before the arrival of the US forces.

"Your proposal is interesting, and I would be happy to go along with
it," said the Colonel-General as he took his seat. "The General Staff
has given me three divisions, one armored, one motor-rifle, and one
VDV, to use in this exercise, plus air elements and a Spetsnaz
brigade. I might be able to garner another motor-rifle to be detatched
from regular duty as well." That might make Yosolev a bit nervous, but
Rezakaev doubted the ChiComms would jump them if Siberia was crawling
with Americans. "This is my XO, Major-General Ulamov," he pointed to a
stoney-faced Russian to his left. "And yours?"

"Major General Rodriguez is to my left," Sands replied, gesturing to a
Hispanic man who towered over practically everybody in the room,
easily 6'9".

"I have primarily infantry units, The 82nd Airborne, a few Stryker
brigades, but an Armored Cav Regiment among them. 75th Ranger's got
their First Battalion here, and a B-team from 1st Special Forces
Group. Oh, and the Marines offshore. Air assets from Alaska, but a few
squadrons from the East Coast came out to play, too. Navy wanted to
play too, but POTUS figured -that- would scare the Chinese," Sands
noted. More than the massive number of forces in Siberia? Well, they'd
had to make SOME concessions to the State Department.

"I'm told that, as a consolation prize, our Navies will be holding
separate exercises in the North Pacific."

"I see," replied Rezakaev. "Well, with introductions completed and the
disposition of our forces laid out, we should proceed into the setup
stage of our exercise. I will begin ordering my forces to start taking
defencive action, and General Rodriguez and I can start planning how
to best defeat you and your men, General Sands."

"Okay then, although I doubt that you'll succeed," Sands replied,
sticking out his hand. "May the best force win, and the losing command
staffs cook dinner at the end of the exercise." There was a grin, then.

"How about the winner getting a nice bottle of Kentucky whisky, or
some Siberian vodka depending on how this goes," replied Rezakaev,
grasping Sands' hand.
---

A day later, in a bunker built deep underground by the Soviets in the
event of an American or Chinese nuclear airburst, Rezakaev studied the
newly-installed LCD map table. "Siberia is a lot of land to cover,
there's limited roads and only a few railways," he thought openly to
his command staff. The presence of US Army officers among them was
still quite the novelty to Rezakaev. "I would guess that the OPFORCE
is going to strike out at our C3 abilites with special forces units,
supress our air assets with an attack by Raptors, then move their
conventional forces in to sieze key transportation points. Or, that's
how I'd do it. Your opinion, General Rodriguez?"

"You'd be right, normally. However, Siberia is also cold. You can't -
go- off the roads and railways without risking getting very lost in
deep, deep tundra. And GPS, as useful as it might be, is only -part-
of what you need to navigate," Rodriguez replied. "One wrong moment of
blowing snow can make your life a living hell, after all.

"Therefore, expect them to focus on nailing your roads and railways.
He'll choke them off quite nicely, I suspect. Then, sweep the skies
and watch your forces collapse to a nice, demoralizing loss of supply."

"Renforce our positions here and here," insturcted Rezakaev to
Rodriguez, pointing to two of the primary railway terminals. "Have the
VDV begin sweeping the main roads at random intervals for possible SF
incursions. When OPFORCE attacks, VDV and Spetsnaz will attack their
recon units and artillery support while our motor-rifle divisions
attempt to repulse their primary assault. The Air Force will start
doing recon flights to assertain where they'll attack from."

Rezakaev was worried about air attacks. His surface-to-air ability was
limited, and he wanted to be careful with his air assets, especially
his Berkut's. If, or when according to some, the Chinese invaded
Siberia it would very likely be the air war that determined if Russia
would prevail or not. If Sands was able to make effective use of air
power, then it might allow Rezakaev to push Moscow for more radar and
SAM sites to be built.

"Yes, sir." Rodriguez replied, saluting.
---
Elsewhere, in a hangar that had been built for long-gone nuclear
bombers, LTG Sands met with his command staff over a rather more
sophisticated interface, MG Ulamov beside him.

"Alright, this is our situation," Sands began, his hands in control
gloves that looked like something out of 'Minority Report', as he set
the 3D terrain map to a recon view.

"We are, as it is, fairly evenly matched. No naval gunfire support due
to political considerations, but they'll be forced to stick to the
roads and rails simply so they don't get lost.

"Therefore, my thought is: They want us to attack them from the air.
They want us to hit their transportation points. Why give that to
them?" Sands asked.

"The weather and the winter is a consideration, sir," noted COL
Jeremiah Walcott, the G3.

"Not so much. After all, how different, really, is a blowing snowstorm
from a blowing sandstorm?" Sands replied.

The debate was lively, inevitably drawing in the Russians in the area
as well.

Unusually, during the debate, all considerations of rank or hierarchy
seemed to go out the window. The lowest lieutenants, even nearby
privates, were pulled in to say what they thought.

Then, quietly, Sands tapped his right foot against the concrete floor
twice.

"Okay, folks. Private Edwin, damn good idea on the supply line.
Captain Marks, grab who you need, find out the local market price for
whatever supplies we might want to requisition from the locals. We
issue reciepts for market value plus five percent, payable by the US
Treasury. I'm thinking particularly of food." Local rations, the
Americans knew from experience, were infinitely preferable to MREs.
Might be unfamiliar food, but the freshness and quality of commercial
food supplies made up for that with the soldiers, and the morale boost
was worth the financial cost. Besides that, if you had the locals
taking your money, they were infinitely more likely not to play with
the other side; a lesson the US military had learned well from Iraq
and Afghanistan.

"Chaplain Flaherty, I want to see the religious leaders of the area
ASAP. Presumably, they know their flocks, and I want to know the
popular moods of the area. They'll have complete safe conduct, and the
religious sites of the area will not be disturbed, so long as they
stay out of the conflict - Completely. That *includes* in sermons.
It's almost Great Lent, anyhow, so now is a good time for them to
focus on matters more regarding sin than shooting.

"BG McGuinness, company sized airdrops at the points indicated. They
hoof it to the nearest positions and steal the local troops' vehicles.
The rest of the division will follow by helo and fixed-wing, and will
handle securing and satisfying the populace. MPs will handle EPWs; the
orders are very, very clear. -No- monkey business. Anyone taken under
our control will be treated -strictly- in accordance with the laws and
customs of war, or there *will* be court-martials.

"Major General Ulamov, you'll be liasing with our Air Force comrades;
I want them to sweep the skies of DEFFORCE air assets, then focus on
close air support and interdiction.

"Lt Colonel Finnemore, Special Forces will head behind the lines. No
specific targets, they take what they can get. Extraction will be at
the discretion of commanders on the ground.

"Doctor Pappas, medical forces will focus on supporting the maneuver
units. However, when it's slow, I -encourage- your medical teams to go
roving to help the locals, build up some support for us.

"PsyOps plan will focus on pacifying the local population. No curfews,
focus on keeping the economy moving.

"Civil Affairs: No need to take the local government from their
positions. So long as they cooperate, we'll leave them alone.

"Now, final thoughts?"

"We should attack roads and railways leading to Western Russia as soon
as the USAF is able to do so," commented Ulamov. "Cut off DEFORCE's
primary supply routes. Also, the Red Army built vast underground
diesel storage tanks after the border war with China back in 1969.
They're deep undergound to protect them from nuclear airburst, but if
we can destroy them then the armor and motor-rifle units under
Rezakaev's command will be severly hampered."

That had Sands smiling. "Why destroy it when we can steal it and use
it ourselves? Our stuff can run on practically anything."

"It'll wreck our engines, boss. Not immediately, but soon enough,"
Captain Cushing, the fuel supply officer, noted.

"Okay then. Sour the milk. Major General Ulamov, where might access
points to these tanks be located?" Sands asked.

Ulamov quickly pointed the top-surface refueling points on the map
screen. "These are there locations. The fuel tanks themselves are hard
to get at, but the surface refueling facilities can be damaged by
conventional means. Air strikes and such."
---

The initial attack by the OPFORCE resulted in a rather embarrassing
defeat for their airborne units. The VDV had accurately predicated
where the initial insertions would be made and wiped out or captured
the first wave of drops. Likewise, Spetsnaz caught several enemy
special forces teams off guard and added a few more points to
DEFFORCE's score.

DEFORCE had also surprised their American counterparts with their
mobility and raiding tactics when two motor-rifle brigades jumped an
armored recon unit. The motor-rifle brigades found themselves chewed
up by the counter-ambush, but the point was made.

Following the failure of the initial push, OPFORCE fell back and
launched an all-out air supremacy campaign. With the majority of them
having only limited stick time, Russian pilots did not present a
serious threat to USAF pilots. The Su-47 proved to be a rather
nasty surprise to the F-35, scoring a number of kills in the first
engagement between the two craft (although the F-35 did perform to
expectations, the SU-47 pilots simply had more time with their
aircraft), but in the end superior pilot
training and vastly superior C4I ability meant Su-47's simply tended
to get shot down last by the F/A-22s after they were done with the
Su-27's and the MiGs, with the F-35s more than earning their keep in
ground-attack.

Firmly in control of the skies, OPFORCE fighters then began a
dedicated bombing plan that quickly crippled several armored and
mechanized brigades as well as cutting off DEFFORCE supply lines to
the West. In response, Rezakaev pulled back to form a highly compact
defensive core around his remaining surface-to-air defense grid and
left the VDV and Spetsnaz to disperse and wage a guerilla war against
the advancing OPFORCE units; the tactic presented some difficulty to
OPFORCE units at first, but the VDV troops were ill-trained to act as
guerillas, and were quickly suppressed; American PsyOps and Civil
Affairs activity meant that the Spetznaz were, with some gentle
persuasion (in food, money, and health care), ferreted out and
captured or "killed".

Several breakouts by DEFORCE's armored units were suppressed by air
strikes, and after a short but bloody mopup of the Russian special
forces units, OPFORCE overran the last DEFFORCE position in a
three-pronged land, air and artillery assault.
---

Rezakaev had not expected to win. He was facing the most well-trained,
well-equiped military in the history of the world. With all the
problems the Russian military had only now begun to address, no one
had really expected win.

>From the very first days of the 'war,' Rezakaev's initial suspision
that the poor showing of the RFAF would be their undoing proved
correct. And while
the PLAF may not have had the same technological edge of the USAF, it
was huge and their pilots were getting in plenty of stick time. The
Chinese had Russia outmatched in the air.

>From a certain standpoint, this wargame exercise was a positive. It
would allow Rezakaev and the Russian military as a whole to identify
some key problems other than pilot training time to address.

On the negative side, he and others in the Army feared it might
encourage the Chinese to step up their invasion plans, if the SVR's
fears proved correct. Only a moron would assume the PLA wasn't
watching all of this intently, plans to invade or not. Any
shortcomings the Chinese might have when stacked up against the
Americans they could easily make up for in sheer number.

The Federation would have to get its act together fast.

"Congratulations General Sands," said Rezakaev as the American
commander was led into the main CP. "My compliments to the US Air
Force. If any of my pilots didn't believe in God, they do now."

Sands smiled, then. It had been, equally, a good exercise for the US.
Much training had been gained, particularly in cold weather operations,
and lessons had been learned. On the one hand, the F-35 had not quite
been the overmatch that it was supposed to be against the Su-47, and
the F/A-22 was too focused on air-to-air. On the other, airborne
operations had been too easily intercepted; there were ways around
those issues, but the training it required was not, sadly, commonly
available.

The Russians had provided a strong opponent, all told. It was good,
really, for the US military to face peer competitors; it kept them on
their toes.

To Rezakaev's comment, he smiled. "I'm not sure what God has to do with
it, sir; He tends not to take sides in combat. Your troops were a
difficult opponent, whether in the air or on the ground." A
pause. "Let's be honest, you were outmatched. One of our battalions,
when matched against a force with any relative deficits, will have an
effect equal to, easily, two or three battalions. Tactically, and that
was in many cases what this exercise worked on; when you encumber a
force with the ROE and political considerations that are part of
warfare in a democracy, the strategic equations change.

"That said, there's a conversation worth having as to whether faith, or
the lack thereof, has an effect on combat. But perhaps that's better
for another time."

"Regardless of the outcome, I think we will benefit from all of this,"
continued Rezakaev. "The most important leasons are the hardest
learned."
---

Actions:
1) Stage a joint war games exercise between the US and Federation
Armies in Siberia.